Good News about Complete Bob Newhart Show (see Post 90) (1 Viewer)

[Mike*SC]

I guess Fox doesn't care that this will generate bad press for them. That will cost way more dollars than just releasing the remaining two sets.

I'm very, very disappointed by this news. I love this show, and bought each season the day it came out. But what you're suggesting here is a complete fantasy. There will be little to no bad press, and whatever sales they lose of other shows because of this will be miniscule.

 

[Mike*SC]

the companies expect way too much. Bob Newhart Show is not going to make the type of profit The Simpsons does, I don't see how Fox can't grasp that

Of course they know that. Do you really, really think they don't? Please don't make something up and then express disbelief at that thing.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

Then what's their excuse, Mike?

 

[Mike*SC]

What you call an "excuse" I would call a "reason."
Look, I have no idea how these DVDs sold, how much these particular DVDs cost to produce, any of that. (I know I bought all four seasons, so there are at least four sales right there.) But as hard as it is for some people here to believe, some DVDs lose money.
But let's say that that's not the case with "Bob Newhart." Let's say it's made a small-ish profit. Now nobody expected it to make "Simpsons" profit. But 20th Century Fox is a company (like all companies) with finite resources, in a world of finite time, selling to stores with finite shelf space. And "The Simpsons" makes a big profit, many times that of "The Bob Newhart Show." So if you work for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, which of these is going to be your priority?
More profitable always takes precedence over less. Why wouldn't it? I hold out hope that 20th will get around to future seasons of "Bob" as well as "Mary Tyler Moore," if they are indeed not money-losers. It's happening for other shows all the time ("Happy Days," "Without a Trace," "Mad About You"). But bear in mind, if Best Buy, and Walmart, and Target can't move these, they won't be ordering them, and then 20th's hands are tied. It's really pretty simple.

 

[Stephen Wight]

Look, I have no idea how these DVDs sold, how much these particular DVDs cost to produce, any of that.

Obviously they've sold pretty well for FOX to release four seasons.I find it hard to believe,though,that season 4 has sold poorly when seasons 1-3 have sold well.Perhaps season 4 not selling well is an anomoly and season 5 could do good.Has FOX thought of that?

 

[Jay_B!]

Of course they know that. Do you really, really think they don't? Please don't make something up and then express disbelief at that thing.

then why do they throw out reasons about "well, Who's The Boss only sold 1.5% of what Seinfeld sold" or "Night Court only sold abut 6% of what Friends sold", like in the article posted here some time back. Shows like Seinfeld, Friends and The Simpsons are once-in-a-catalog type shows, those three are without a doubt the biggest sitcoms those three companies own. It's not really fair to abandon Night Court because it only sold 6% of what Friends did, notice that Night Court only airs about 6% as much in reruns and the DVD's get about 6% the promotion that Friends gets. IMO, it evens out and the companies seem to put way too many eggs in the baskets of their key blockbuster shows, and the older favorites get screwed in comparison. Maybe instead of trying to compare Bob Newhart's sales to The Simpsons, how about comparing it to a sitcom from that period that's had about the same visibility in reruns over the past 10-15 years (and this means MASH is out the door in terms of comparison, since MASH has been constantly in syndication for the past 25 years, Bob Newhart's barely been shown). If Fox sees it that way, they'll be far more impressed with the sales instead of holding The Simpsons as the gold standard for ALL shows in their catalog to compare to.

 

[Mike*SC]

then why do they throw out reasons about "well, Who's The Boss only sold 1.5% of what Seinfeld sold" or "Night Court only sold abut 6% of what Friends sold", like in the article posted here some time back.

Well, I don't have the text of that article in front of me to read the exact quote, if in fact it was an exact quote of somebody from a studio that was in the article. (And as somebody who has been wildly misquoted in a couple of major newspapers, I also wouldn't take the exact words as gospel, regardless.)
But even if what some studio guy (not necessarily in charge) said was exactly the words you wrote above, what part of that suggests that they expected "Night Court" to sell as well as "Friends"? It seems to me to be a simple fact. "Who's the Boss" sold 1.5% of "Seinfeld," so their priority would clearly be "Seinfeld."
Besides, while anybody would know that "Seinfeld" would sell many more copies than "Who's the Boss," they might expect it to be sell 15% as many, or the like. The 1.5% thing (if that's accurate -- I'm sorry if you just made that up) would be a pretty shockingly small number. And even if that number were 5%, the article was simply illustrating the wide range of sales for television DVDs. Because a lot of people assume (wrongly) that they're just "found money," and that they're all wildly profitable.
The point is, if you read any of those quotes to mean that any DVD distributor expected "That's My Mama" to sell as well as "Star Trek," then that is a wild misreading of their intention.

 

[RoyM]

Crap, this is bad news. But I expected it, given no announcements for new sets. I am fully expecting the same news for the remainder of Mary Tyler Moore.

The increasing prevalance of the studios abandoning releases of shows midway is causing me to seriously consider getting out of collecting TV on DVD. I'm sick of being left in the lurch after investing time and money in collecting (often multiple) seasons of a show, only to hear the studio is done with it with only a couple of seasons left.

This makes more than a half-dozen shows I've been burned on after buying one or more seasons: Taxi, Night Gallery, Night Court, Barney Miller, The White Shadow, Cheers, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Green Acres. I also am concerned that Mary Tyler Moore and All in the Family may join that list before completion, given their more erratic and drawn out release history.

Where I used to run out to buy the first season release of shows I like but which are not absolute "must-haves", I now hold off until at least a few seasons are released. It seems even that may not be a certain indicator of release through completion.

I am holding off on Hawaii Five-O and Mission:Impossible for the time being, even though I would like to get both. It's just too high risk that they will be dropped somewhere in the middle of their long runs. The Odd Couple I will take a chance on just because at five seasons, it is short enough that all seasons could reasonably make it out.

 

[Paul Miller]

I really don't understand why the last season did poorly enough to stop putting out new season. Bob Newhart had a book and stand up DVD which coincided with the release of the last season of the show released on DVD. It was reasonably priced at around $20 and Bob & others from the show partook in audio commentaries. Plus, this show had really good syndication, I remember seeing it a lot on NICK at Nite so it isn't like it is a forgotten show.

Paul

 

[MatthewA]

Fox has been claiming "poor sales" a lot. Do you think perhaps you were talking to an incredibly stupid myna bird?

 

[Jay_B!]

Well, I don't have the text of that article in front of me to read the exact quote, if in fact it was an exact quote of somebody from a studio that was in the article. (And as somebody who has been wildly misquoted in a couple of major newspapers, I also wouldn't take the exact words as gospel, regardless.)
But even if what some studio guy (not necessarily in charge) said was exactly the words you wrote above, what part of that suggests that they expected "Night Court" to sell as well as "Friends"? It seems to me to be a simple fact. "Who's the Boss" sold 1.5% of "Seinfeld," so their priority would clearly be "Seinfeld."
Besides, while anybody would know that "Seinfeld" would sell many more copies than "Who's the Boss," they might expect it to be sell 15% as many, or the like. The 1.5% thing (if that's accurate -- I'm sorry if you just made that up) would be a pretty shockingly small number. And even if that number were 5%, the article was simply illustrating the wide range of sales for television DVDs. Because a lot of people assume (wrongly) that they're just "found money," and that they're all wildly profitable.
The point is, if you read any of those quotes to mean that any DVD distributor expected "That's My Mama" to sell as well as "Star Trek," then that is a wild misreading of their intention.

actually, I can't stand Who's The Boss and love Seinfeld, so I'm not defending WTB but... The Seinfeld DVD's are loaded with extras, every episode has pop-up video commentary, 90% of the episodes have "inside look" featurettes which include interviews with every cast member along with Larry David and various others on the writing/production staff, and a good 25-50% of the episodes have audio commentary. Who's The Boss didn't have anything but a few montages and no interviews with Danza, Milano, etc...
Seinfeld obviously takes a lot more money to produce on DVD, alongside the fact that every release has a commercial promotional campaign. When you consider how much more Sony puts into promoting Seinfeld, they would probably consider WTB easier to release since all they need to do is throw the episodes on disc and the fans will buy it. It doesn't need to sell as much to break even as Seinfeld would.

 

[Tony S]

^These bigger companies, Sony, Fox, WB, etc are not interested in "breaking even." I'm sure most if not all of their titles make some profit. But, they want BIG sales. They are going to take care of thier biggest selling titles first. Once those are all out, then maybe they can get around to finishing up the lower selling titles.

If the next season of a show I want is not coming out, I look at it as a delay. This delay will: a) give studios time to get their higher profile stuff released, and b) give people that did not pick up the latest season(s) of that show time to do so.

Maybe i'm a bit optimistic, but I believe most or all of these shows will be completed eventually. I mean how many times can studios double and triple dip on movies before people stop buying them. Sooner or later they will have to release something that has not yet been released on dvd.

The tv on dvd market continues to grow each year. That can only be improved by the recent acquisition of tvshowsondvd by TV Guide. The studios will get these shows finished eventually. We just need to try to be patient and make sure we buy the seasons that are already out.

 

[Jay_B!]

^These bigger companies, Sony, Fox, WB, etc are not interested in "breaking even." I'm sure most if not all of their titles make some profit. But, they want BIG sales. They are going to take care of thier biggest selling titles first. Once those are all out, then maybe they can get around to finishing up the lower selling titles.

I dunno, look at Warner and Fox. Instead of releasing further seasons of the lower-selling shows, they'll keep finding new ways to repackage and rerelease Friends, Buffy, The X-Files and other bigger titles that have already been completed on DVD. Instead of giving Night Court or Murphy Brown another season on DVD, Warner would rather repackage Friends for the sixteenth time instead of having the "well, this show has been completed, time to start giving something else a shot" mentality.
I mean, the companies release their movie vaults on DVD even if an obscure movie from 30 years ago isn't going to sell the numbers that last summers blockbuster did, but yet they give both fair treatment, why can't they do the same for TV shows?

 

[Tony S]

Yeah, but how many times can they repackage Friends, Buffy, or X-Files? All of the die hard fans already have these shows. Eventually the marketing & repackaging expense of doing this will out-weigh the spike in sales that it will cause. Also when they are repackaged the price per episode is usually lower, which also cuts into their profits.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

Better not jump the gun here, it's not official that it's not continuing, this is just a rumor right(?). It'd be silly to quit now, with only two seasons to go, and I desperately want "Newhart" too. Studios; release shows like you release movies! Simple logic. And follow through, dammit...!

 

[Corey3rd]

I no longer race out and grab season boxsets because within a few months, there will be a 2 for 1 deal on one of the websites. That's how I've been getting the Bob Newhart / Mary Tyler Moore sets.

 

[Eric_Bee]

I really don't understand why the last season did poorly enough to stop putting out new season. Bob Newhart had a book and stand up DVD which coincided with the release of the last season of the show released on DVD. It was reasonably priced at around $20 and Bob & others from the show partook in audio commentaries. Plus, this show had really good syndication, I remember seeing it a lot on NICK at Nite so it isn't like it is a forgotten show.
Paul

It's interesting you mention Bob's book. It came out September 19, 2006, the same day as the Season 4 DVD. Sounds like a great opportunity for cross-marketing, huh? Wrong. There was a large ad in USA Today for the book on September 18 or 19, but it contained no mention at all--even a tiny one--of the DVD release coming out the same day. While I understand the book's publisher, Hyperion, would not care about promoting the DVD, I'm amazed Bob's management, aware of the simultaneous release dates, didn't arrange with Hyperion for the book ads to have a mention of the DVD.
I also saw a Bob interview when the book came out, which failed to mention the DVD. So there was lousy promotion for the DVD.

 

[Brian Himes]

I'm not too worried about this. I think that Fox will finish both Bob and Mary. It just might take them 20 years to do it, but eventually they will.

 

[Richard Michael Clark]

I hope so!

 

[BobGassel]

What's going to eventually happen to all series is that disks won't be physically produced, they'll just be sold as downloads. When this happens all those "abandoned" series will be available in their complete form.